Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has given no guarantees that there will not be any further failures for the Scuderia this season.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been on the receiving end of two reliability-related retirements each so far this year, and they were both sent out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with different issues.
There have also been a fair few failures for their customer teams, Haas and Alfa Romeo, so while the Maranello-based team have an altogether more competitive package this season, there is still work to be done on its longevity.
A lack of reliability has conspired with strategic blunders and driver errors to derail Ferrari’s title challenge this year and, while their deficit to Red Bull is not insurmountable, they have a mountain to climb.
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Binotto assured that the team are working hard on the engines, and reiterated that the gremlins must be ousted for next year.
“We are managing the reliability problems well and we are working on the final solution, it is something that takes time and needs to be totally solved for 2023,” he said, quoted by Formu1a.uno.
However, the Italian could not assure fans that the issues will be extinguished by the end of the 2022 season.
“This does not mean that it will not be solved by this year,” conceded Binotto.
Ferrari cost themselves another win at the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend when they made another strategic error with Charles Leclerc, pitting him for Hards instead of leaving him out on Mediums to complete his stint.
He was already on fresher Mediums than his competitors to begin with having pitted later, so could have stayed out and bolted on fresh Softs at the end to take the win.
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However, he was passed by Max Verstappen as the Dutchman won the race, and Leclerc fell to sixth when he eventually pitted again for Softs.
Verstappen now leads Leclerc by 80 points in the Drivers’ Standings heading into the summer break.